Game Design: Most Game Mechanics

Sort of continuing from my entry last night, there’s this idea I have that the core elements of the game should include the methods by which a player wins the game, or progresses, I think. Last night I complained that winning Magic: the Gathering or Decipher’s Star Wars games required elements which weren’t immediately obvious (let me tell you how long it took me to “decipher” Star Wars…)

So, here’s where we stand with my game — you can play with a deck of your own construction, or you can play with a deck based off a standard deck of playing cards. We’re talking four suits (generally clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds), Aces, 2s through 10s, and Jacks, Queens, and Kings. I’m sure I’ve read what that deck format is called before, but I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head. Now really, that should be mind-blowing. What do you mean you can buy into the CCG, but still play with standard cards?

Let’s break it down: your deck is called your “Destiny.” You resolve conflicts by “drawing lots,” (compare to Magic’s “clash” mechanic) by drawing the top card from your Destiny, adding any other relevant modifiers, and comparing values. Throughout the game, you add and remove cards from your “Reserve,” a set of up to five cards that make up the mainstay of your player powers.

To activate the cards in your Reserve, you discard (to the bottom of your deck) the cards in your “Resources,” which acts as a sort of temporary discard pile. The value of the cards you discard from your Resources must be greater than the cards you’re activating in your Reserve. Higher-valued cards are generally more powerful, so you have to balance the power of the cards in your Reserve with the probability of being able to activate them with your Resources.

To illustrate:
* Let’s say you have a Four and an Eight in your Reserve. In your Resources, you have a Two, a Five, and a Seven.
* To activate your Four, you discard the Five in your Resources.
* With the Five gone, you have to discard another card if you want to activate the Four again. The Two isn’t enough, so it has to be the Seven. Alternatively, you could discard the Two and Seven together (totaling nine) to activate your Eight once.